new world
witnesses

Immigration, Charity,
and the Meaning of Work
An article that began as an investigation on the issue of immigration became an inquiry into the meaning of work. In this article, we have two testimonies from lives spent in the service of others. Caring for immigrants is not merely a political question, and the Christian approach to it is not only about duty

edited by Suzanne Tanzi and Santiago Ramos

Carmen I. Saenz is Manager of the Foreign-Trained Health Professionals Program, started in 2006 by the Latino Health Initiative of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services in Maryland. The need for bilingual and culturally competent health professions to serve the Latino patient population triggered the program, but the general lack of nurses in the health care profession was what really carried the initiative forward into today. Now it is a multilingual/multicultural program that helps immigrant professionals dramatically improve their circumstances, while at the same time answering the desperate need to fill openings in the field of nursing, a need that will only be growing with our aging population. For 2012, the projected deficit of nurses will reach 17,000 vacancies in the state of Maryland.
With just 35 people in this program (and 100-plus waiting in the wings), there is no aspiration to try to fill this overwhelming need. But Carmen faces her day with each of these 35 people in her eyes, the hope of her own experience informing her relationship with them as she asks them, “What is it that you desire?”

Some of the participants in your program, who were already professional nurses in their own countries, have seemingly insurmountable obstacles to overcome when they arrive in the U.S.–cultural and language adjustments, children to feed, poor housing, impatient husbands, and other difficulties that prevent their continued studies to become certified nurses here. How do you account for the 100% retention rate in your program?
We don’t simply try to plug them into a training program. We spend a lot of time assessing what each applicant might need. In the screening, I ask them what it is they really want, what they really desire in their lives. I myself, an immigrant from Costa Rica, came to learn, through my family and through my education in the CL Movement, that my value as a person does not depend on what I do or what I can prove. I feel this is true for those I am trying to help as well, and my first approach is to make them feel their worth, while helping them truly discern what it is they want. We cannot accept all of them on this difficult track toward re-certification, but those that are the most ready are fully accompanied by us. We meet with them quarterly one-on-one as they go through this process, to re-evaluate their needs. This relationship is key to their success. What is called “in-depth case management” to us means looking at each of the nurses as a person, a person who may need help with  transportation, babysitting, housing, confidence issues, and anything else you can think of. 

Where do these nurses come from and how do they mix together?
Since we started out serving Latinos (our status has only just begun to evolve toward multicultural), 74%, 26 people, are from 10 different Latin American countries. And there are 2 from Africa, 5 from Asia, and 2 from Europe. They are becoming the best of friends, colleagues, sharing their knowledge and work experiences as well as their home-life concerns. Many of these people, formerly working in cleaning services, home care for the elderly, and as babysitters, would never have met or spoken to each other, never mind becoming close professional associates and friends. It is a beautiful microcosm of care and cooperation.

How has this work changed you?
While I was more aware of my worth as a person, chosen and accompanied, than many of our applicants, I don’t think it really hit me how very chosen, how very accompanied I was until I began this work. At first, I felt overwhelmed by my inadequacy to meet so many needs, yet things began to happen that had nothing to do with my efforts, and I became more serene in my awareness that Another had come with me to work. For example, our program received a surprising and much-needed government grant that was miraculous, a real sign from God for me that He supports us and gives us what we need. On a personal level, I think I can say that I have come to know “work” as a place of conversion. Not too long ago, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. At first, I just stayed home, worried about being sick, waiting and wondering until, finally, I began to work again. Maybe at work I had the same worry and fatigue but with an acute awareness that God wants to use me; that we, He and I and all my co-workers, program partners, and friends, are on a wonderful adventure together. The clarity that has been growing in me about being His came, for me, tumor or no tumor, through my full engagement in this work that I do,  informed by my friends in the Movement and in my small Fraternity and by my work on School of Community (I can’t emphasize this enough!). I am so thankful for that.

Do you think your immigrant clients notice anything different about your approach?
I think they do feel an embrace. They find people here who are concerned about them, and in my case I can say I really care about their destiny, even if I can’t use those words. One of our participants explicitly told me she realized that I cared more about her than about the program, and this was a shock for her, as her background was very humble and I think she wasn’t even sure if she deserved such attention! On a practical level, they certainly notice their improved circumstances after getting re-certified. In fact, 11 people have completed this program with the net result of a 150% average increase in their salaries. These people are now able to support their families much more humanly and generously. This can have a tremendous positive domino effect on the immigrant culture here.

What does the future hold for your organization, for you?
In December, the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation and the Maryland Hospital Association recently announced at a Maryland Governors’ New American Initiative  press conference the huge potential of our work to address the nursing shortage crisis in our country. In addition to the current funding from Montgomery County, with the new funding they provided came the request for us to expand beyond our Latino outreach to all immigrants. Our services are now open to any foreign-trained health professional.  Recently, a man from Africa, who knew us and our work for years, thanked the entire group and his new peers for welcoming him on board for training–we joined him in celebrating our multicultural diversity and looking with anticipation toward our new path.  What is this initiative for me? A place where my desire for justice, truth, and beauty can be fulfilled in time, and the desire to share this with others has been expanding in my heart.
Monsignor Ronald T. Marino is a priest and Vicar for Migrant and Ethnic Apostolates of the Diocese of Brooklyn, and has been working at the diocesan Catholic Migration Office for thirty years. He shares his experience and his judgment on his work with Traces.

How does the place work?
The Catholic Migration Office is part of the diocese. Founded in 1971, it is the central location for the diocese of Brooklyn for all immigration-related services that the diocese offers. The office has several departments. There is a legal department, for visas, asylum, citizenship, and other issues immigrants have. There is also an educational department for English courses and accent reduction for foreign-born priests, as well as a pastoral services department for the various ethnic apostolates, to connect immigrants to their spiritual needs and find priests who can take care of them in their language. And then we have an Immigrant-Tenant Advocacy Program for immigrants who are being taken advantage of by unscrupulous landlords, and we provide them with dignified housing, even if we have to take the landlords to court, which we have done many times (and we usually win). We also have a resources department, which is job-training for different fields. Then we have advocacy work, for immigration law.

How did you get started?
As an act of obedience. I was a parish priest for nine years and the bishop asked me to do this work. At first, I didn’t want to do it, because I was a very happy parish priest. But then he reminded me of my promise of obedience and so I did it. I told the bishop at the time that I didn’t know anything about immigration, and he said some very profound words: “The immigrants themselves will tell you everything you need to know.” After 30 years, I can tell you that those are wise words.
What the immigrants have taught me is how much their faith means to them. It is not easy for anyone to pick up and leave their country and everything that is familiar to them, and move to another country. It’s not easy. Throughout their travails of doing that, their faith is so strong that it makes an impression on anyone who meets them. You can see that they are true believers. One thing I learned then was the strength of faith to sustain people through struggles. They have also taught me the universality of the Church. In Brooklyn, 170 countries are represented. We help people of all religions, not just Catholics. The motto of the office is: We do what we do not because you’re Catholic but because we’re Catholic.

Have you experienced a confirmation that this is where you are meant to be?
There have been dozens of those moments, any time the Holy Spirit inspired me in one way or another to begin a new program. Programs were begun in perceiving the needs of people. For example, the very successful Resources Program happened because one day I went to a store that sells used office furniture, but I accidentally walked into the wrong door, and it was a Chinese sweatshop where I saw dozens of Chinese women and children working very hard at sewing. Of course, it’s illegal for children to work. The man running the place saw my collar, and he knew I was in the wrong place. It was July of 1994, a very hot day, no windows. They hire families, and each family has a sewing machine, and they work 24 hours a day. We decided to do something about this. What was the proper way to respond? In my neighborhood, we discovered hundreds of these sweatshops. I prayed about it, and the idea came to me to set up this program where we train people to do certain jobs. I actually went to Milan and spoke to Fr. Giussani about it, as well as to some other friends of mine in Milan, and I was receiving confirmation from all over the place to do what I had the idea to do. It’s been one of the most successful job creation programs in the country, and it’s been copied by many places, including Miami.

How has this charism helped you understand your experience?
The ideal of obedience exists to make you free to do what you should do, rather than what you have to do, and it gives you that perspective on things that you bump into during the course of your daily life. For a person like me who works in the ministry for immigrants, I have to constantly remind myself that the Holy Spirit put me here, and sends me these people, and we believe that they are the human face of Christ, dressed in immigrant clothing and speaking a foreign language, and following what my bishop said long ago turns into obedience to Christ, which gives a whole new perspective on my life as a priest. The charism of the Movement, and of Giussani, reinforced in me the fact that when you look for the Presence, He is easy to find, and you can only do that if you understand yourself being obedient to Him and to the Church. That obedience is not some vague concept of slavery to some authority, but the recognition of the presence of Christ asking you to do something particular for Him.